Stories

Title Acquired: Jacksons, Smith power Louisa past Fluvanna to clinch regular season title

Louisa County girls basketball knew it was going to be in for a fight Friday night. With the Jefferson District title on the line against a second place Fluvanna County squad looking to avenge a blowout loss in mid-January at the hands of the Lions, the stage was set for a physical battle. 

 

“We were prepared for a dog fight – we were both competing for a title,” said Louisa’s Janie Smith.

 

The Flucos held up their end of the bargain and took the Lions down to the wire, but Louisa matched Fluvanna’s physicality and picked up a 57-49 win to earn a share of the Jefferson District crown. They can lock up sole possession of the championship with one win next week. 

 

“That’s what we talked about at the first timeout — they’re not going away, we’ve got to match the physicality,” said Louisa coach Nick Schreck. “We knew coming in that they were going to play us pretty tough, we put it to them at our place.”

 

The Lions rode an explosive offensive performance from Sylvie Jackson who finished with 29 points and her sister, freshman Ella Jackson who scored 17. Smith’s 11 points – she also hauled in a ridiculous 16 boards to complete a double double – rounded out the entirety of the Louisa offense as only three players scored for Louisa.

 

Sylvie Jackson, who’s averaging 5.4 steals and 1.8 blocks per game, was all over the floor defensively and had five steals. She made essentially back-to-back blocks in the second half to steady the Lions as Fluvanna started making a serious charge. 

 

“That’s been Sylvie all year, she’s our leader,” Schreck said. “That’s one of the things that this team has done well is they’ve played up to her level. Janie and her have set the tone and the other girls have matched it.”

 

The Flucos got off to a strong start, opening the game on a 6-0 run. But Louisa rescinded with a 13-0 run of their own that included 3-pointers from both Jacksons and Smith. 

 

“We had a tough game last night against Spotswood, we talked about just competing,” said Fluvanna coach Josh McElheny. “We made a couple of baskets there at the beginning that kind of helped and it was a physical game.”

 

From there, each time Fluvanna got within striking distance, one of the Jacksons seemed to come up with play after play. Sylvie Jackson just flipped a switch at some point and started knocking down everything, including an absurd fadeaway near the baseline after driving down the middle of the lane and veering right and it just became overwhelming for the Flucos. 

 

“We did everything we could, but Jackson is just so good it’s tough,” McElheny said. “She hit some shots where there’s nothing that we can do besides where we were.”

Aniah Webb finished with 18 and Alana Carter-Johnston 10. Abby Seal got going in the second half with 10 of her 12 points coming after the break. 

It was impressive work from that trio, but the Flucos simply couldn’t overcome Louisa’s zone defense, Sylvie Jackson’s explosion and the career-high scoring performance by Ella Jackson. 

 

“Ella stepped up, I’m so proud of her, that’s what we needed from her,” Smith said.

 

The Lions get a chance Monday at home against Albemarle to wrap up an outright district regular season title while the Flucos will host Western Albemarle that same night. 

 

Comments

comments